Instead, the nation's last undefeated college basketball team is eager to end the 39-year wait to add another member to the club -- even if an old rival is trying to make history in the Hoosiers' backyard.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 17:46:32 -04002015-03-31T17:46:32-04:002015-03-31T17:46:32-04:00MILWAUKEE -- After Michigan State clinched a spot in the Final Four over the weekend, Wisconsin's Sam Dekker wrote a short but pointed note on Twitter that packed as much of a punch as one of his slam dunks.

"The Big Ten had a down year right?" Dekker asked.

If anyone had that perception, it certainly isn't the case anymore with two teams in the NCAA Tournament national semifinals -- which is being held in the middle of Big Ten country in Indianapolis, no less.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 17:38:08 -04002015-03-31T17:38:08-04:002015-03-31T17:38:08-04:00NEW YORK -- Even before the first pitch of the 2015 season is thrown, an eye-popping baseball record will be set.

The average salary when opening-day rosters are finalized Sunday will break the $4 million barrier for the first time, according to a study of all major league contracts by The Associated Press.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 17:03:57 -04002015-03-31T17:03:57-04:002015-03-31T17:03:57-04:00DETROIT -- More than 13,000 Detroit-area property owners have entered into payment plans hoping to avoid losing their homes to tax foreclosure, but another 16,000 living in their homes have yet to take advantage of the offer ahead of Tuesday's deadline.

Hundreds of applicants sat in a hotel ballroom waiting for the chance to plead their cases before Wayne County Treasury workers, with many lining up before 7 a.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:49:15 -04002015-03-31T16:49:15-04:002015-03-31T16:49:15-04:00DETROIT -- Many tractor-trailers on the nation's roads are driven faster than the 75 mph their tires are designed to handle, a practice that has been linked to wrecks and blowouts but has largely escaped the attention of highway officials.

Nearly all truck tires have been built for a maximum sustained speed of 75 mph since the middle of last decade, when drivers across the vast majority of the U.

Spring break may give students a week away from school, but that doesn't mean a week away from learning.

Central Michigan University's Museum of Cultural and Natural History located in Rowe Hall provided educational programming Tuesday afternoon to help local students learn more about dinosaurs.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:35:48 -04002015-03-31T16:35:48-04:002015-03-31T16:35:48-04:00An 80-year-old Stanton-area man was murdered in an apparent break-in spree in which three other nearby homes were also broken into, state police said in a press release.

Alan Nelson, of 591 Nelson Drive in Sydney Township, was found dead at his home and is believed to have been killed sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning, according to Michigan State Police investigators from the Lakeview Post.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 12:55:09 -04002015-03-31T12:55:09-04:002015-03-31T15:44:11-04:00The attorneys for a Hazel Park couple battling the state's ban on same-sex marriage have determined who will present oral arguments in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mary Bonauto has been tasked with that duty. On April 28, she will address whether the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex, according to a press release issued Tuesday morning.

A Bannister man has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in the September murder of his estranged girlfriend and faces sentencing in Saginaw County on April 16.

Justin Lee Thomas, 26, was originally charged with first degree murder in the Sept. 21 bludgeoning death of Stacy Marie Westendorf, 25, his former live-in girlfriend and the mother of his two young children.

Fighting fire or assisting injured people in wild or hard-to-get-to places just got a little easier for the Alma Fire Department.

On March 19, the department got a Gator to add to its fleet of emergency vehicles. The all-terrain, four-wheel drive, all weather vehicle can carry 55 gallons of water, four people and has a paramedic board to strap in an injured person.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:18:13 -04002015-03-31T14:18:13-04:002015-03-31T14:18:13-04:00NEW YORK (AP) -- Microsoft is making a cheaper version of its Surface Pro 3 tablet computer in an effort to reach students and budget-conscious families.

Graphic artists, engineers and finance professionals needing to run complex software might still want the company's higher-end Pro 3, said Dennis Meinhardt, director of program management for Surface.

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:00:04 -04002015-03-31T14:00:04-04:002015-03-31T14:00:04-04:00WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sarah Dieffenbacher is on a debt strike. She's refusing to make payments on the more than $100,000 in federal and private loans she says she owes for studies at a for-profit college that she now considers so worthless she doesn't include it on her resume.

We, the undersigned members of the Alma College faculty, wish to express our concern regarding featuring Dr. Ben Carson as our speaker the evening before the 2015 Honors Day. We recognize that he is no longer the designated "Honors Day Speaker" and that the college president has issued a statement distancing the college from this particular choice.

Somewhere, in the bowels of the Indiana Capital building, I picture an intern working very hard creating spin to help Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) Indiana defend his support for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The law is also known as Senate Bill 101--a law allowing individuals and organizations to openly discriminate against those they feel are morally reprehensible, based on their religious beliefs, by denying goods and services without fear of prosecution--out of the Indiana Legislature, but that doesn't have the same ring to it.